October is here! There are so many damn books releasing this month that I’m honestly a little overwhelmed.
Is the season affecting your reading? Do you want something more spooky in anticipation of Halloween? Let us know!
Aarya: I just finished an arc of Chloe Neill’s Wicked Hour ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), the second book in the Heirs of Chicagoland series. I have mixed feelings despite liking most of it. I am completely invested in the relationship between Elisa and Connor; they have a species enmity/childhood enemies/adult friends-to-lovers vibe. But as with the previous book, I am ambivalent about the PNR mystery subplot. I’d honestly be okay skimming the B-plot and focusing on the couple instead. If you like vampire/werewolf/magic politics, then you might enjoy the series and it’s worth a try (I’m liking it FAR more than the previous series, which I rage-quit after Something Unforgivable happened).
I’m also currently in the first quarter of Rebekah Weatherspoon’s Xeni. I am LOVING it so far, and I think many in the Bitchery are excited for this book. It has a contemporary marriage-of-convenience (forced by a will, of course!), bi MCs, terrific chemistry, and possibly my favorite cover of 2019 (look at it! It’s so gorgeous!). I hope the book lives up to my first impressions of it.
Shana: I’m also reading Xeni right now. Book twins! I adore it so far. It’s so nice to have a hot chubby hero. I just finished Work for It by Talia Hibbert ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). It’s a contemporary m/m romance about a damaged playboy who escapes to the British countryside and falls for a laconic and misunderstood elderflower farmer. I found it delightful.
Lara: I’m in the midst of Safety Breach by Delores Fossen ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). It’s romantic suspense with a surprisingly complex plot. I’m still in the post-reading afterglow of Wolf of Wessex by Matthew Harffy ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). I didn’t realise I loved a Dark Ages quest, but I do!
Catherine: I just finished reading Grilled Cheese and Goblins by Nicole Kimberling, I think based on a recommendation from the Bitchery? If not, consider this a recommendation from the Bitchery. It’s a collection of short stories and novellas about Keith Curry, former chef turned supernatural food inspector (or rather, food inspector to the supernatural or dealing with supernatural issues). It’s funny, occasionally gruesome, and enormous fun. Genre is kind of hard boiled detective but in a fantasy world where the detective works for the government as a food inspector and deals with problems like suspected cannibalism, contaminated blood supplies, and leprechaun versus pixie industrial disputes connected with food additives. Also, there’s a rather sweet M/M romance threaded through the sequence, which I love. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Claudia: I read A Convenient Fiction by Mimi Matthews ( A | BN | K | AB ), with a whole delightful chapter about a Victorian seaside holiday, with bathing machines and snootiness toward day trippers. Right now I’m reading The Clothier’s Daughter ( A | BN | K | AB ), by new-to-me Australian author Bronwyn Parry. It’s set in the “year without a summer,” 1816, and it’s a second-chance romance with a suspense element. So far so good!
Elyse: I just woke up to Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) on my Kindle so I’m sure I’ll be reading that tonight.
Amanda: It’s real weird.
Charlotte: Shana, you had me at “elderflower farmer.”
I just finished Promise of Darkness by Bec McMaster. It was well-written but I had the same problem I often do with McMaster, namely, that the romantic tension resolves a bit too early in the book for me. It’s very, very reminiscent of A Court of Thorns and Roses if you enjoyed that – just with less-developed worldbuilding.
Amanda: A lot of my upcoming books are heavy on dragons. Not a bad thing. I just started Fireborne ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), which has been on my radar since BEA.
And my nighttime kindle, turn my brain off read is Butterface by Avery Flynn ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). I’m a quarter of the way into it and surprised by how much I like it. Cop heroes aren’t my favorite and the initial setup of a kiss cam made me nervous.
Sarah: I can understand that!
Amanda: And I’m very sensitive to second hand embarrassment!
Sarah: ME TOO
Tara: I’m reading Secrets Well Kept by Lynn Ames ( A | BN ), which is a lesbian historical about the women who were making uranium for the bombs in WWII. I thought it was a romance, but I’m halfway in and the two leads haven’t met yet, so maybe not? It’s very good, though.
In audio I’m listening to Chasing Sunset by Missouri Vaun, which is an f/f roadtrip romance with an actress and an aspiring stunt driver. It’s cute.
Maya: I’m reading Bound in Flame by Katherine Kayne ( A ). Mostly I grabbed it because the cover was so pretty!! It’s about a turn of the century Native Hawaiian woman. Not own voices, but there’s magic and the main character seems like a bit of a badass so I am hoping it holds up!
Shana: I’m really curious to hear your thoughts on this one, Maya! The early reviews were brutal which scared me off.
Aarya: I have heard REALLY bad things about that book. I’m curious, too.
Maya: Yeah, I’m a little concerned, too, but I haven’t really gotten past the prologue, so I don’t have anything concrete to say except pretty cover!!
Sneezy: Just finished The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls ( A | BN | K | AB ), and starting Our Women on the Ground! ( A | BN | K | G | AB )
Kiki: I have somehow made my way into the paranormal Viking aisle of romance and just finished Her Viking Wolf by Theodora Taylor ( A ) which was strange and magnificent and honestly I might just go back and reread it. Am now reading The Viking Queen’s Men by Holley Trent!
Ellen: I just finished Gideon the Ninth and it was everything and I loved it so much and all I want is to wrap myself in skull face paint and start shaking bone bits around menacingly (#JustGideonTheNinthThings). Otherwise I have like 40 books checked out of the library right now (this is not an exaggeration) so I’m having a bit of choice paralysis as to what I should start next…
Carrie: For the book club I lead in Sacramento I’m reading Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au | Scribd ) and I am loving every minute of it.
What books have you finished already in October?
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:::stumbles in after a day spent cleaning and moving and getting ready to go home:::
I am very tired. But after a year in Hurricane Hell, I’m coming home. So I didn’t read a lot today. I left off on Slay. I enjoyed it. There was, as it turns out, an emotionally abusive relationship central to the story that could be difficult for some to read. But it hit some interesting points, and I think that the story would work really well for discussing the intersection of race relations and gaming and pop culture with young people. Plus, geeky girls in STEM. Yaaass. I followed it up with The Hollow of Fear by Sherry Thomas, and I always enjoy Charlotte. It was a little less gothic than the cover art would suggest, and I liked the forward momentum of various relationships in the series. And it was interesting to have Charlotte ever so slightly off balance. She’s still the smartest, scariest person in every room, and that’s always fun to read. Then I went SPOOKYSEASON and read Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky. It was a lot of book, and I enjoyed it immensely. The switcheroo central to the story was never telegraphed, so it had a real element of surprise that is usually missing for me. Plus, some of the imagery was genuinely unnerving. Good October reading, that. And now, today, I’m reading Vendetta In Death by J.D. Robb. This one’s got a good hook, which is a self-styled avenger killing bad dudes. That said, the mystery is fairly straightforward and the book has had a surprising dearth of Roarke. Still enjoying it. I’ve been reading these books for about 22 years, and after all this time, I pretty much know what I’m in for, and I still find things to enjoy. Until next time, folks. I have some ruby slippers to click. There is, after all, no place like home.
The past month was truly awful which clearly influenced my reactions to everything I read because I DNF’d at least a dozen books and I was hypercritical of those I liked enough to finished.
Sapphire Flames – Ilona Andrews unchallenging but entertaining 4th book in the Hidden Legacy series. The shift to a new main couple Catalina and Alessandro is welcome, Connor, half of the primary couple in the first 3 books is a blunt instrument who was becoming tedious. Yes, a promise made by Catalina that will supposedly keep them from being together is a flimsy device but I was most frustrated by an over-reliance on weaponry in this book. Weren’t we supposed to be getting the intellectual sister with her intriguing mental magic? But no, Catalina is amassing swords and going through calculations about what gun to use and Alessandro is practically a walking arsenal. More mind games less bloody mayhem please.
Act Your Age – Eve Dangerfield An interesting rec from DiscoDollyDeb, I had a very mixed reaction to this one. The writing style was engaging and main character Katie was lovely; self-aware and believable. In fact almost all the female characters were wonderful and I could read an entire book about Katie’s roller derby experiences and teammates. Also handled really well: the 20 yr age gap between the leads and how it might affect their long term relationship, the fact that Dangerfield didn’t rely on the simplistic idea that sexual kinks are the result of traumatic childhoods, and most particularly how a relationship Katie had as a child involving an adult man which in many books would have been turned into a sexually abusive situation wasn’t in this one. I was amazed at how relieved I was about that!
Unfortunately I thought all the male characters fell within a narrow gamut between unpleasant and gross, including the somewhat underwritten male lead Tyler. While admittedly I have low tolerance for Dom behavior and therefore found the sex scenes exceptionally unsexy, my problem wasn’t lack affinity for his kinks, as the same could be said for Katie’s and I thought she was great. But though I kept being told about Ty’s charisma all I noticed was his self-pity and the vagueness of his characterization, was he an alcoholic, an ex-fireman who should have never left, mid-level office grunt, high powered executive? I couldn’t tell and I wasn’t persuaded to care. What did bother me was his inclination towards self-protection resulted in a disturbing inattention to aftercare and given the nature of the sex he was engaging in this deserved some criticism within the book. Also there was a line to the effect that all women secretly want dominant men which feels like a narrow minded flip-side to the view that no one could truly enjoy kinky sex.
Reticence – Gail Carriger (audiobook) is it damning with faint praise to repeat the unchallenging but entertaining description? Probably but sometimes that is exactly what I want and this book delivered it. A highlight was a lovely, funny and inclusive scene at the wedding of the main couple from the first two books in the series. Narrated by Moira Quirk who is always fabulous
The Wallflower Wager – Tessa Dare In the midst of witty banter, comic set pieces, and absurdity exaggerated for effect, the heroine has constructed a life and a found family of pets and female friends which seems to satisfy her and so the romance felt almost unnecessary. I’ve read complaints that an important aspect of the plot about her teenage trauma came out of nowhere without even any foreshadowing, but this is a plot I’ve lived and the humiliation and feelings of helplessness, the belief that she needed to keep everything secret, the incredulity that her loved ones never noticed what was going on felt painfully real. A sudden reveal felt completely plausible and highlights how real life is rarely as well structured as a romance novel. However I wasn’t thrilled with the resolution. Too many people were suddenly involved and the action was driven by and suited to Gabriel’s needs and anger rather than Penelope’s.
Bringing Down The Duke – Evie Dunmore This book was filled with so much potential, a coldly aloof hero, an intellectual non-virginal heroine, suffragists! and I did find the characters quite appealing but while I thought the book was good I didn’t love it. It’s a romance with all the genre expectations that go with it but the ending felt somewhat too easy given the societal pressures the characters were likely to encounter. Maybe I’ve read too many novels by women actually written in the period in which this is set to find it convincing. I just remember that one of the biggest challenges for those writing contemporaneously about the New Woman was how to find a satisfactory ending when resorting to either a tragedy or marriage could read as disempowering.
Surf, Sea and a Sexy Stranger – Heidi Rice. A re-read of a Harlequin Romance from 2011, back when the titles were a lot more fun. My recollection was that this had scenes where the sex was bad due to the behavior of the male lead, which I love as a welcome disruption of the dude is the most amazing and unselfish lover in the world scenario.
“That guy’s got to be the world’s worst surfer” is the book’s first sentence by lifeguard/waitress/artist Maddy who eventually has to rescue said stranger. Later they end up having sex but Rye, who has been experiencing some ED issues after a serious accident is concerned about being able keep it up long enough to complete the act, so doesn’t notice when Maddie tries to slow him down because she’s not ready. Which leads to Rye getting off, so he’s pleased and relieved, but Maddie’s annoyed. Rye admits she has every right to be and apologizes without getting defensive and proceeds to give Maddie many orgasms without making any demands of his own. If only the book ended here! Next morning Rye, who owns but doesn’t manage the cafe where Maddie works, threatens to fire her when she states her firm rule against sleeping with her boss. Which would be bad enough except the author further tries to soothe her fictional male’s fragile ego by having Maddie completely forget where the sex went wrong. Maddie’s thoughts from the previous night that there was only 2 seconds of foreplay and he was rubbish in bed transform to where she convinces herself that her body and inexperience, though she wasn’t a virgin, were the problem, and ends with a gee your c*ck is SO BIG! Strangely I would recommend this not in spite of but because of its flaws which are instructive.
And yes one of my favorite songs and videos ever is Lily Allen’s Not Fair, which I watched about 10x while reading this book!
The best thing I did bookwise was complete an entire re-listen of all 19 books in the Amelia Peabody series read by Barbara Rosenblat, excluding the posthumously published The Painted Queen which is not good. Even though I love the books like comfort food there is plenty to criticize and it’s more noticeable each time through though I believe the characters are intentionally flawed, except Ramses who is perfect. and my boyfriend!
@Nan De Plume So I’m looking for OT3 triad romance (in which everyone is in love with everyone type) that isn’t erotica or bdsm or kink* but in the Jasmine Guillory/Tessa Dare sort of romance novel. Just…babies ever after bisexual triads! Adorable OT3 meet cutes! Historical fluffy triad romance!
*There is absolutely nothing wrong with those things I want to make clear. Those things are great. I just, due to Trauma Stuff cannot read them.
@HeatherS
As a Kelly Hunter fan I loved The One That Got Away but the cover is ridiculously deceptive. And I miss Harlequin’s KISS line too, for many of the same reasons as you give but honestly they did themselves no favors with the awful covers. Harlequin has made some very strange decisions in the last few years.
@Nan De Plume: Thanks. I appreciate that. Hope you get a chance to check out my books.
My reading-for-fun has dropped off in recent years due to my own writing, so I’ve started reading ebooks while I’m on the treadmill to help me read more books. But sometimes, after working on my own stuff all day long, the last thing I want to do is read anything else. LOL.
After reading through Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank, which was wonderful and had some practical magic elements, I had to find another Low Country writer to read. The Bookshop at Water’s End by Patti Callahan Henry was another good story and a new-to-me Southern writer. After that, it was back to historicals with To Surrender to a Rogue by Cara Elliott. I enjoyed the archeologist heroine and artist-solder hero.
I started reading Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore last night and think I am going to enjoy the story if I use a dash of suspension of disbelief. Next up is Whisper Network. I’ve been looking forward to this one, but went the borrow route and the library hold fairies came through on Friday.
@Jill Q: Have you tried the Sam Krupnik books instead? He now has four of his own! Part of the reason I loved the Anastasia series (I’m 41 now) was because of scenes with her little brother Sam, and I’m happy Lois Lowry decided to give him a starring role in 1988. The first book is called All About Sam and it is A DELIGHT.
Mia Sosa – Getting Dirty with the CEO (I read a few in this series). These were short and enjoyable! I’ll definitely pick up future releases of Mia’s.
Malini Singh – Whisper of Sin. I didn’t realise this was a novella when I started it. It was interesting, but this was the first Malini Singh that I had read and I just don’t know if I’m that into Changeling kinda stuff to seek out more. Convince me with your favorite?
Olivia Dade – Ready to Fall. I picked this up because she is is in a writing group with Mia Sosa. I’d read some more from her too!
Fiona Lowe – Boomerang Bride. I didn’t love this, but I did finish it. Small town romance (Wisconsin + Aussie).
Christina Lauren – My Favorite Half Night Stand and Sweet Filthy Boy. I think CL is my favorite contemporary author pair – each of these is sweet and hot!
Charlotte Stein – Never Sweeter. I read this because Fated Mates had it listed in their curvy heroines list. I didn’t love it overall, but the sex was pretty steamy.
Next up are 2 more Christina Lauren ones that BPL just has on audiobook.
Ugh, NALINI. Autocorrect is the worst.
I agree with being overwhelmed by the amount of books coming out this month. I’ve actually thought about trying Kindle Unlimited just to offset some of the cost because my wallet is already screaming at me.
–Something in the Way by Jessica Hawkins. 1st in series. 2 teenage sisters befriend the older construction worker working next door. It’s the start of a series and ends on a cliffhanger the way all books do now. It was good but I haven’t started the second book yet.
–The Price of Scandal by Lucy Score. 1st in series of books by separate authors about a group of lady billionaires. This is only my second book by Lucy Score and I am turning into a big fan of hers.
–The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker. Spoiled twenty-something goes to the middle of nowhere Alaska to see her father that she barely knows and ends up fighting constantly with a grumpy pilot that works for her dad’s company and lives next door. I really liked it.
–Blindfolded Innocence by Alessandra Torre. One of Torre’s earlier books. Follows a new intern at a law office and is warned to stay away from the womanizing partner that has tendency to show up in other books. IT was just ok for me.
–My Bare Lady by Piper Sheldon. I received an ARC of this book for signing up for the Smartypants Romance Patreon. I think it comes out in November and I’m not gonna lie, I chose this one because of the cover. This is the first book in the Scorned Women’s Society and I believe is all the ex’s of Jethro Winston from Penny Reid’s Winston Brother’s series. This books follows Suze a stripper and Clifford a professor. He ends up using her as a test subject for a research project and ends up falling for her. It started a little slow for me because Clifford was so stuffy but eventually he loosened up and I really liked the book.
–All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover. This book is about a married couple that is dealing with fertility issues. It goes back and forth between the past and the present and you couldn’t help but feel for the couple in this book. Highly recommend this book!
–Baking Me Crazy by Karla Sorensen. 1st book in the Smartypants Universe. Friends to Lovers book trope. Joss has been in a wheelchair since she was 16 due to Myelitis. When Levi meets her when they are teenagers, his family’s curse hits when he meets her and he asks her out. She isn’t ready for romance since dealing with her illness and needs a friend instead. So 5 years later Levi decides he wants out of the friend zone. It was a really good book and I highly recommend. You do not need to have read any of Penny Reid’s books to read this one, even though her characters do make appearances.
–The Mogul and The Muscle by Claire Kingsley. 2nd book in the Bluewater Billionaire series where the women are the ones with money. Aerospace engineer needs a bodyguard. The bodyguard just wants to retire and golf but agrees to help out one last time. Really enjoying this series.
It’s been a tough month for me book-wise. Not really enjoying most of what I’m reading. I did really love Archangel’s War but that’s the only real luck I’ve had. I might do some re-reading just to get back in the zone. I need something light and fun and funny and, most of all, kind. I feel like there’s been a lot of unkindness or downright cruelty in my books lately.
@Iris, you put your finger on what I didn’t like about Sapphire Flames – too many weapons. But I mostly liked it and did zoom right through it.
I liked the Right Swipe, mostly – some of it was kind of painful? definitely not a fluff book. I love Rai’s books, though, and felt like this one held up to the others.
I think I’m gonna DNF Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors. I don’t like how the leads are so awful to each other, the family is cruel to Trisha, and there are a lot of cringe-y moments. I really hate cringe-y moments in books, it rips me out of enjoying them and I often just stop reading for awhile. Reading reviews it seems like the leads don’t really treat each other any better till the end of the book, and I’m just getting into the Wickham section and I just can’t deal with more cruelty right now.
I might finally finish a Prince on Paper this week, after my third or fourth time checking it out of the library. I loved the other two and I like Nya a lot; not super into Johan I guess? Or something? It’s just not grabbing me.
Read the Anatomist’s Wife after reading about it here. It was definitely too gory for me – I’m not into murder mysteries! but I did finish it.
Robyn Carr’s The View from Alameda Island finally arrived off my hold list. This was a little darker than I was expecting and included a trope I generally avoid (abuse) – I autorequest Carr’s books and didn’t realize this one had it. It was decent, but again, not my thing.
At the moment I am about halfway through Brazen and the Beast by Sarah MacLean and I seriously considered calling in sick to work today so that I could just finish it. I liked the first one in the series, Wicked and the Wallflower, but this one is just DELICIOUS. It’s giving me that feeling where you are torn between gobbling up the book to find out what happens and wanting to read it slowly to really savor it. Earlier this month I read The Savior by JR Ward. Solid 4 stars, did not completely love it but I liked it just fine. The ending resolution was a little deus ex machina but nothing that hasn’t been seen before in this series. And completely different genre altogether but I read a book called “Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood.” I don’t read a lot of parenting books because I tend to get frustrated by the fake conversations that they use to illustrate their points. It’s like yes, if my teenager would ever use that particular combination of words this strategy might work but what have you got that works with grunts and eye rolls? This book had a bit of that, but overall I appreciated how it mostly stuck to explaining how your kid might be feeling and why, and left the mechanics of dealing with those feelings up to the individual parent. So if you, like me, are doing your best to make it through the teen years unscathed, this might be a book worth checking out.